MINISTER OF EDUCATION

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30103, 10 April 1963, Page 14

MINISTER OF EDUCATION

Canterbury Visit Pleases

The Minister of Education (Mr Tennent) is enjoying a visit to Canterbury because of three interesting calls and because problems of accommodating pupils and staffing schools seem fewer than elsewhere. In Christchurch last evening Mr Tennent listed the special interest of the calls as:—

(1) The official opening yesterday of the Geraldine High School with forms I to VI was an innovation which would be followed with wide interest. (2) An informal call at the Avonside Girls' High School this morning would enable him to see staff and pupils at work. Mr Tennent said he liked such visits because he could get the “feel” of education better than in any formal function.

(3) The official opening of the Lincoln High School’s new assembly hall later in the morning also pleased him because this was a district high school graded to full high school status and specially planned to serve a rural community. Mr Tennent said the absence of serious accommodation problems in Canterbury did not mean that pressure had ended. The post-war bulge in population was now in the post-primary schools and it would not be many years before these young persons married and had families of their own. The Education Department was already working on longrange forecasts of their school requirements. He had noted that both the Canterbury Education Board and the Christchurch Postprimary Schools’ Council were also thinking well into the future.